• Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Obituary Cocktail

The Obituary Cocktail

Hardcover

Series: Iconic New Orleans Cocktails

American CookingLiquor

Publisher Price: $24.95

ISBN10: 0807184799
ISBN13: 9780807184790
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: Jul 16 2025
Pages: 146
Weight: 0.50
Height: 0.80 Width: 5.20 Depth: 6.80
Language: English

Finalist for the James Beard Foundation Book Award

In a city known for celebrating in the face of death, it's no surprise that the funerary tradition is honored by a drink. The Obituary Cocktail is a spirited dive into New Orleans's bohemian past, chronicling how this cocktail--made with gin, vermouth, and absinthe--became central to mid-twentieth-century café society before fading temporarily into obscurity.

Like a good obituary, this book shares stories about the drink, beginning with its 1940s origins at Café Lafitte, the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the U.S. and the stomping ground for the city's café society, which included Tennessee Williams, Ella Brennan, and a rich crop of prominent New Orleans visitors. Sue Strachan explores the history of the cocktail's ingredients, shares recipes for home mixologists, and resurrects the stories of other morbidly monikered drinks. With detours into the world of secret societies, second-line parades, and celebrations of deathly holidays like Halloween and All Saints' Day, The Obituary Cocktail gives new life to this unique beverage.

Also from

Strachan, Sue

Also in

Liquor